Knowledge

The Greenport Holland / DHTB is an independent organisation, founded by the private companies in the Dutch horticultural sector. It’s a horticultural partnership of the Dutch private sector, knowledge institutes and government. It’s mission is to enhance the quality of international horticulture through successful international horticultural projects.

TU Delft collaborates with a large number of other educational and research institutes within the Netherlands and abroad and has a reputation for high-quality teaching and research. TU Delft has extensive contacts with governments, trade organisations, consultancies, the industry and small and medium-sized companies. vds a’Campo BV recently became the local representative of TAHMO in Rwanda. The Trans African Hydro-Meteorological Observatory (TAHMO) is supporting farmers in East Africa to boost their food security and reduce their risk from rainfed agriculture by increasing their access to crop insurance and by providing farmer-focused weather information products, via a greatly expanded network of on-the-ground weather monitoring stations. Traditionally, farmers use sophisticated risk mitigation strategies (staggered planting, mixed cropping systems, etc). However, these systems are inefficient because they must, by necessity, assume low rainfall in order to avoid total crop failure. For example, farmers reduce the number of seeds planted, setting them further apart, to guarantee a minimum amount of water per plant in case of less-than-average rainfall. TAHMO and vds a’Campo BV will expand the coming years to Rwanda and offer affordable agricultural insurance products that help smallholders reduce their risk, manage unpredictable rainfall, and invest in their farms.

VIA Water is a programme that promotes solutions for the water problems in African cities. The program is hosted by Unesco IHE. Many solutions have already been developed and there is a lot of knowledge available from all kinds of different partners.